Today in History

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Today is Thursday, Nov. 26, the 330th day of 2009. There are 35 days left in the year. This is Thanksgiving Day.

Today's Highlight in History:

Nov. 26, 1789, was a day of thanksgiving set aside by President George Washington to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

On this date:

In 1825, the first college social fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Society, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

In 1842, the founders of the University of Notre Dame arrived at the school's present-day site near South Bend, Ind.

In 1883, former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Mich.

In 1933, a judge in New York decided the James Joyce book "Ulysses" was not obscene and could be published in the United States.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning Dec. 1. The motion picture "Casablanca," starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York.

In 1943, during World War II, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed.

In 1949, India adopted a constitution as a republic within the British Commonwealth.

In 1950, China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea.

In 1965, France launched its first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she'd accidentally caused part of the 18 1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.

Ten years ago: Sixteen people were killed when a Norwegian high-speed passenger ferry hit a shoal and sank off Boemla Island, 250 miles west of Oslo.

Five years ago: Leading Iraqi politicians called for a six-month delay in the Jan. 30 election because of spiraling violence; President George W. Bush said, "The Iraqi Election Commission has scheduled elections in January, and I would hope they'd go forward in January." (The vote took place as scheduled.) French movie director Philippe de Broca ("King of Hearts") died at age 71.

One year ago: Teams of heavily armed gunmen, allegedly from Pakistan, stormed luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in Mumbai, India, leaving at least 166 people dead in a rampage lasting some 60 hours.

A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles of three minor offenses for her role in a mean-spirited Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl, Megan Meier, to suicide. (However, Lori Drew's convictions were later dismissed.)

Thought for Today: "Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route." -- Sister Elizabeth Kenny, Australian nurse (1886-1952).